The Cavalier daily :: Monday, September 28, 1970 :: University of Virginia Library

From the scarcity of coats and
ties in the mode of dress of this
year's first year class, it is quite
obvious that many first yearmen
have come here with more liberal
ideas about the University than first
yearmen of the past.

This liberal point of view is
neither good nor bad in itself.
However, it may be dangerous
when carried beyond certain
reasonable limits.

A surprising number of first year
dormitory counselors have
expressed a concern that a startling
number of first yearmen have come
to the University assuming that it is
a drug sanctuary and therefore one
may talk freely about drugs in the
presence of almost anyone.

Although it may come as a
shock to these aforementioned first
yearmen, the University is not quite
as liberal as it may appear to be
nowadays purely in the superficial
light of what is often seen as sloppy
dress and surprisingly long hair
exhibited by many of its students.

Despite this mistaken liberalism,
the "Old University" is nevertheless
dead. It is not my intention to
mourn its passing, but it is
unfortunate that with its passing
has gone much of what Dr.
Buckman termed last year "a
conservative prudence" in reference
to the average student's regard for
drugs at the University.

Narc As Novelty

The term, federal narcotics
undercover agent is a relative
novelty at the University in
comparison to most colleges of the
North. The actual presence of
narcotics agents here may be an
even greater novelty, but rumors,
true or untrue, have without doubt
become an established part of
University life.

In short, drug users must temper
whatever security they have or
perhaps more appropriately,
whatever security they imagine
themselves to have with at least a
minimal amount of caution.
Rumors about busts, the
whereabouts of alleged "narcs,"
etc., always breed uncertainty
which is most safely combated
with careful actions.

The following story is pertinent
to the University community with
regard to narcotics agents and the
false sense of safety that people
apparently have. It is directed to
those first yearmen whose blatant
self-advertisements may prove
dangerous.

Stranger Than Fiction

To the best of my knowledge
the following is true. The
information was obtained from
mutual friends of the parties
involved and overly talkative
domestic help. Two relatives of the
people concerned, Misses Caroline
Kennedy and Maria Shriver, were
both reluctant to solicit any
information and to confirm
anything already known by
informed sources.

Everyone has heard of
Hyannisport, Massachusetts, but it
wasn't always this famous. At one
time, it was a small summer resort,
actually a village, on the south
shore of Cape Cod. No one had ever
heard of it except those who lived
there.

People from Massachusetts, New
York, and Pennsylvania who
preferred quiet summers, almost
completely void of the whirlwind,
coming-out party, Long Island type
of summers, found quiet relaxation
in their weather-beaten shingled
homes of Hyannisport. To be sure,
the staid placidness of Hyannisport
made its geographical proximity to
Boston more than a coincidence.

No one in this mostly
conservative Republican village
seemed to mind the presence of
Democrat Senator John Kennedy
and all the other members of his
family, although they were
newcomers by comparison to
almost everyone else there.

Edward Kennedy's notoriously
wild splash parties were tolerated
by the older people with a grain of
salt. They were eventually put to an
end anyway when his brother
complained that they were possibly
ruining his chances in the
presidential campaign.

Mixed Results

When fame blessed the
Kennedys, it also blessed
Hyannisport, but there was only
one difference. The Kennedys felt
blessed; Hyannisport did not.

As a result of the Kennedys,
summer tourists have flocked to
Cape Cod as though Hyannisport
were a veritable Mecca. For
approximately the last ten
summers, the people who were
once accustomed to the quiet little
streets of Hyannisport have had to
put up with Secret Service men and
the inconvenience of having to put
stickers on their cars so that the
24-hour policemen will let them go
through their own streets.

Those who think that the
University is almost an absolutely
safe place to do drugs have not seen
anything until they have seen
Hyannisport. It is seemingly
impermeable to the outside world
in the summertime, and yet two
sons of the biggest names there,
Kennedy and Shriver, were arrested
on drug charges and others because
of them.

Paradox

It is rather paradoxical that
Robert Kennedy and his cousin,
Robert Shriver, should have been
arrested for possession of marijuana
when their getting away with
destructive pranks has always been
common knowledge in
Hyannisport. Somehow, in the case
of drugs, their names did them as
little good as the seeming
impermeability of Hyannisport.

Whenever a Kennedy does
anything it is always in the news.
You've probably seen pictures of
them at the opera, Rose in her new
Dior original, etc., ad nauseam.
Even when a Kennedy has a minor
injury you'll hear about it. And so,
early this summer, it was publicized
that Robert Kennedy, Jr. broke his
arm, having fallen out of a tree
attempting to catch a pet falcon.

This allegedly was not true, and
if you had been doing what he
actually had been doing you would
have made up a ridiculous story
too. Young Mr. Kennedy had been
smoking marijuana and decided to
climb a tree while stoned.
Unfortunately, his Kennedy gift for
athletics was not superior to the
quality of the marijuana, and his
agility was clearly lacking.

Robert Kennedy fell out of the
tree, but not too stoned to realize
that he had better go to the
hospital, he telephoned a cab to
come to his home to take him
there, there being no one else at
home.

Overtalk

Shortly after, a cab arrived,
Robert Kennedy had informed the
guards to let him through. As luck
would have it for young Kennedy,
the driver turned out to be a
long-haired freak. It was just his
bag, and so, naively, Robert
Kennedy told the entire story of
how he broke his arm to the driver.

To Kennedy, it was obvious that
he and the driver had much in
common although it is said that the
driver was clearly his senior by
many years. After all, he and the
driver did speak the same language,
the diction consisting of such
verbiage as "oh dynamite, wow,
and that's cool man."

By the time they had reached
the hospital, which could not have
taken more than fifteen minutes,
Kennedy had become close friends
with the driver or so he thought. He
invited him to a party in
Hyannisport on the night of July
10.

Bust

The connection should now be
obvious. The driver was a "narc"
who not only had Robert Kennedy
arrested but also his cousin and
others at that party at which of
course there was marijuana and
allegedly some hashish.

This incident resulted in a court
appearance with a suspended
sentence for the two cousins.
However, that wasn't all for the
ill-fated Robert Kennedy. His
mother, Mrs. Ethel Kennedy, not
only shaved his head but sent him
down to their home in Virginia for
the remainder of the summer. Some
might contend that this
banishment, obviously intended to
keep the youth out of trouble, was
more comparable to sending him
from the proverbial frying pan into
the fire.

Bounty

Whatever the current drug
situation is in this state, it is worth
noting that the governor has
appointed a director of narcotics
who has sworn to have the entire
state cleaned up in two years. It is
now said that he has already
appointed two hundred student
narcotics agents to work
throughout the state. Clearly then,
a bit of caution is necessary to
insure some amount of safety here
at the University, for no fraternity
house, first year dormitory, or
private residence is invulnerable to
the clever undercover agent whose
only incentive for an arrest may
sometimes be the cheap price of
two hundred dollars.